OFF-DUTY ELEGANCE: OUT OF OFFICE NEEDN'T MEAN OUT OF STYLE!

Any fool can look sharp in a suit. However, as politicians the world over discover every summer, dressing down successfully is far harder than dressing up. In 1971 President Richard Nixon, keen to co-opt some of the late President John F Kennedy's youthful appeal, posed for some photographs on the San Clemente shore in California. The result was that he was widely mocked for wearing suit trousers and dress shoes on the beach. In the end his awkward appearance contrasted so unfavourably with JFK's exemplary off-duty style that the stunt did nothing but accentuate the differences between the two men. 

The reason for this is that relaxation is the key to the success of any holiday, and so the ideal vacation wardrobe should look and feel relaxed. Aside from underwear nothing that a man sports in the workplace deserves a space in your suitcase. Because we spend our days in an air-conditioned office we need to be reminded of what works on holiday, so we've dug out these old photographs to conjure up a mood of off-duty elegance. The images remind us that it's vital to get the fabric and fit of clothes right. Substantial natural fabrics (we're talking cotton and linen here) are the key, not only because they "breathe" but also because they wear well and can be thrown into the washing machine when dirty. It's hard to be relaxed around sun cream, sand and melting ice creams if everything you're wearing has to be dry-cleaned.

 As far as fit goes we believe that slightly looser clothes work best in the heat. They allow the air to circulate, and the way that they feel is conducive to relaxation. So save your slimmest trousers and close-fitting shirts for the city, and take a leaf out of Mr Gregory Peck's book and wear clothes that can move with the breeze. Colour is the final part of this puzzle, and strong light provides a great opportunity to wear brighter colours than usual. Whether that means a lavender-coloured pair of J.Crew's Stanton shorts, or a Burberry Prorsum shirt with a bold print, is down to taste. But either way the summer is the time to turn up the brightness, although if you have very pale skin it's best to wait until you've caught a tan before going for the boldest shades of orange, red and yellow. Check the gallery, below, to see seven men whose off-duty style was exemplary. 

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THE MAN: MR PICASSO!

Also known as: 

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. Wow!

Were they bright red, breaking on two-tone shoes, or criss-crossed in loud golfer's check? Were they unexpectedly formal, hind parts of a bespoke suit, or baggy plus fours with argyle socks? Were they ever tuxedo trousers before they metamorphosed into summer slacks or shrank into jaunty pre-war Riviera swimsuits? 

They were all of these and many more, since Mr Pablo Picasso changed the way he dressed as often and as radically as he changed the way he painted. He was as instinctive a dresser as he was an artist, replacing one look with another every time something in his life or his fantasy prompted it. Many of the artists around him dressed quite conventionally, above all when success caught up with them. There was Mr Georges Braque in his cool white scarf, Mr Henri Matisse plumply avuncular in a waistcoat while sketching a nude, or Mr Wassily Kandinsky as formally attired as an old-school banker. Mr Salvador Dalí, it's true, put on a show, with the twirled mustachios, the fur coats and silver-topped canes. But Mr Picasso wasn't putting on a show. Whether dressed for the opera, disguised for a bal masqué or simply clowning about, he was always himself - or one of his many selves.

Picasso changed the way he dressed as often and as radically as he changed the way he painted!

"Only superficial people do not judge by appearances." said Mr Oscar Wilde - bless him! And I look forward to one day reading some learned thesis on how artists present themselves to the world and why. Mr Francis Bacon dressed in later life like a successful gangster, an upper-class, English Al Capone in tight, perfectly cut double-breasted suits with subtle stripes and threatening black leather coats, also tight, with epaulettes. Frivolous? I'm not sure. Everything he wore had its meaning for Mr Bacon, and you can even find the clothes he loved - particularly rainbow-hued silk shirts and desert boots - in his pictures. Is it merely anecdotal that Mr Alberto Giacometti invariably worked in a tweed jacket and tie, however caked in plaster, paint and clay they became? I don't think so. Challenging accepted vision every day in his Montparnasse hovel, Mr Giacometti clung to whatever shreds or threads of normality he could find. 

Style, they say, is the man. So how did Mr Picasso, the master artificer of the 20th century, choose to project himself? Did he limit himself to this look or that? Did he decide at a certain point to wear his trousers wide with a crease so sharp (like his friend, the poet Mr Jean Cocteau) that they could cut a Camembert in half? Of course not. He was a creature of infinite fantasy and infinite change. And having just looked through a few scores of photos of the maître at different moments in his long career, I can attest that he virtually never appeared before the camera in the same garb twice. Catch him if you can. During his early years in Paris he would be in vaguely artisanal dress, dark overalls and donkey jackets, occasionally spruced up by a broad-brimmed hat or Romantic lavallière. Then without warning he appears in clunky gaiters or, bizarrely, in an army uniform he had borrowed from his co-cubist, Mr Braque. These were early days, but it was already clear that Mr Picasso enjoyed not just dressing but dressing up.

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DAY3: OUTWEAR - THE OVERCOAT

THE OVERCOAT

A coat created by a Scottish family business that dates back to 1772 may be an unlikely

style totem for Teddy boys, mods and skinheads. But in its various guises the Crombie,

as it was affectionately called, became as much part of their considered and particular 

uniforms as certain polo shirts or shoes.

Overcoat -  usually extend below the knee (made from heavier cloth or fur, because overcoats 

are more commonly used in winter when warmth is more important)

Topcoat -  short coats that end at or above the knees ( topcoats are usually made from lighter 

weight cloth such as gabardine or covert)

 Topcoats and overcoats together are known as outercoats.

(Then you also have the greatcoat, redingote, frock overcoat, ulster coat, inverness coat, 

paletot coat,paddock coat, chesterfield coat..but there is no time to go into details of each one..

for more easy info click here)

Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí arriving in London in 1955, wearing a double-breasted Chesterfield-style and

waxed moustache (we love the moustache!)

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